Name Carolyn Gassmann

EPPSP Group 39
Butler University

The Experiential Program for Preparing School Principals

STANDARD:
31. Develop and implement a plan to expand the role of parents in the educational institution.
Gain increased parent involvement in all grade levels (K-12). (ELCC 4.3)
Summary:
Moving from the elementary world to the high school world, I have seen many differences. One
of those differences is in the level of communication teachers have with parents. At elementary
it seems that teachers send information home about everything that children do—good, bad,
and otherwise. At the high school level, parent communication directly from teachers is almost
always negative.

Last year, our district implemented a communication tool called Parent Square. This allows
everyone from district-level administrators, to principals, and teachers to send messages and
post information to families in a specific class, grade level, or even the entire school. One of the
greatest features of this system is that as long as a parent has an email address and/or phone
number on file with the district (which they all do), they are automatically opted-in to receiving
the information. There is no sign up required, and parents cannot fully opt out of receiving
communication.

In elementary I used this system very frequently to share class photos with parents, send
messages about positive moments or behavior concerns, etc. Many teachers in the school did
the same thing, and the communication was well-received by parents.

Coming to high school, I noticed quickly that positive parent communication from teachers was
lacking, and that few teachers hardly knew how to use Parent Square. Because of this, I chose
to use my role as Department Chair to spend some time working with my teachers on this tool.
One week, I taught them how to create a post to all of their classes’ parents, and the next I
taught them how to send messages to individual parents.

These little learning sessions were well-received by my department. The first one I did, teaching
about creating a post, I chose to do the week before Parent/Teacher conferences. As I was
working with the teachers, I gave them the directive to create a post to send to all families to
remind/invite them to conferences. Although the school had already sent out a plethora of
information on this event, I felt that including a message directly from one of their child’s
teachers would encourage parents in a more personal way to attend the event.

After conferences were over, the Department Chairs received data that compared teachers’
parent attendance at the event in 2019, 2020, and 2021. As I analyzed my department, I noticed
that for every teacher who told me they sent a Parent Square post, there was an increase in the
number of conferences they had with parents. I believe that this added direct communication
from a teacher helped families to feel welcomed and encouraged to attend.

Reflection:
I have thought a lot about parent communication, and have seen it work wonders at the
elementary level. For as long as I’ve been teaching, I’ve tried to form positive relationships with
parents and families from the start of the year. By starting with strong positive relationships, I
was able to better communicate with families, should a negative situation arise with their
student. I tried to do the same at high school. I have had conversations with so many families
about the great things their children are doing, the things they are learning, and ways that their
children can be supported at home and school to succeed. These conversations have helped,
as I’ve had to have more conversations with families about negative classroom behavior as
students transition back to in-person learning this school year. Parents are receptive to what I
am saying, and I believe a large part of that is because the first time they’re hearing from me
isn’t when an issue occurs. They already know that I’m on their child’s side and want to help
them succeed. Because of this, parents have not been accusatory, judgmental, or rude, which is
a complaint I have heard from other teachers about parents’ responses to their communication.

When I first moved to high school, I was shocked by the difference in parent communication. I
have wondered for a while as to why this difference exists. To find a reason, I thought back to
my undergraduate education. I took both elementary and secondary level classes, and I learned
more about parent interactions in my elementary classes than I did in my secondary ones. I
learned that teachers need to build the positive foundation for families’ school interactions from
the start, so they feel empowered to help their children succeed. In my secondary courses, the
focus was mostly on students advocating for themselves and succeeding on their own. While
this is an important skill that high school students must acquire, at the end of the day every
student is someone’s child—whether 14 or 4 years old. Teachers should not make the
assumption that parents want a laisse faire approach to their high school child’s education, and
should work to provide them the insight, support, and communication they deserve, and that
they were most likely afforded when their child was small.

In reflecting upon parent communication at the secondary level, my goal as Department Chair is
to continue working with my teachers to build those relationships and bridge the gap between
the home and school life of high school students. As I start to hopefully shift the mindset of
some of the teachers in my department, I would like to use my administration role to work on a
larger scale with teachers from other departments as well, to eventually make strong positive
parent communication a non-negotiable norm at our school.
Artifacts: